Russian Space Program: News & Discussion #3

Russia is in no hurry to transition to the Angara because it already has launchers that do the job. This is not some car market
where new models (mostly cosmetic changes) come out almost every year. It does not have to follow the expectations of
some peanut gallery.

Also, these are not "delays" and are not evidence of any corruption. Corruption involves cost overruns by engineered delays.
Really, the onus is on the critics to prove there is something wrong.

Just look at the crew dragon with its four person crew and sleek controls and automated docking.

Automated docking was standard on Mir... the Soyuz cargo ships have automatic docking options... one time they tried a manual dock and they had a collision because that particular ship was overloaded and it came in too fast and ended up hitting the station...

So really a four person crew is the height of their achievement... which is impressive... even more so when you add that they went from buying seats to get into space from a hate rival to being able to send four of their people at a time to the space station and it appears a miraculous save... he is really pulling their balls out of the fire... but it is not ground breaking... what they are doing now is not something that has never been done before, and the enormous subsidies and support he has been getting would make any half arse amateur look good for a while.

His real problem is that as a flashy car salesman the next one has to be better than the last... so he is going to end up writing cheques his ass cannot cash... I hope no one dies because of it...

“I’d say six years from now, highly confident [that humans will travel to Mars]. If we get lucky, maybe four years, and then we’re going to try and send an uncrewed vehicle there in two years,” Musk said.

https://www.rt.com/news/508463-musk-spacex-mars-humans-spaceship/

But of course he does not share my fears over human life...

“I want to emphasise that this is a very hard and dangerous, difficult thing, not for the faint of heart… [There’s a] good chance you’ll die. It's going to be tough-going, but it’ll be pretty glorious if it works out,” he said.

Space-X and its 20 year effort to get to where the US was before the Moon program is somehow not a delay.

It gets tiresome listening to the inane drivel about Russia. No, I am not aiming this comment at people in this thread.
People pick up on the negative propaganda which does work at shaping their perceptions.

I know Russia is right now endeavoring on the long term with vostochny and the angara program and that is a good thing. It will take time. But we have to understand that the space industry differs vastly for each country. Elon musk is riding the corrupt capitalist setup and huge NASA budget he found himself in. China considers catching up on space milestones a priority prestige project and spares no funds. So does India. I sometimes think that Russia is lost between these two. Unless it shapes up an identity for itself now, it risks falling behind in the next decades. That is a shame because currently it has a lead in all the critical technologies, automated docking being but one.

Space is a huge money pit that you can piss trillions of dollars away very easily and can end up with very little.

I could care less who got to the Moon or Mars first, I am more interested in examining conditions on Venus a neglected planet... and also maintaining Russias satellite network in earth orbit. Rushing to send men to Mars is stupid right now because propulsion systems make it difficult and much more dangerous than better propulsion systems could make it.

When climbing Mount Everest they didn't just chuck on a pack and start climbing... there were thousands of support people forming bases all the way up the mountain with supplies for going up and coming down for the few that actually reached the summit. It would make sense to assemble something in orbit made of multiple rockets assembled like an Angara model, but some sort of sustainer propulsion that accelerated and decelerated all the way would make conditions more tolerable because it would effectively create a sort of micro gravity...

Recall that in 2001, the Mir station was de-orbited and flooded in the ocean. At that time, it served in orbit for 15 years, which can be considered a fairly short period for an orbital station. It was officially announced about "obsolete equipment". At the same time, it was added that Russia cannot maintain the Mir station due to lack of funding.

I do remember, and I also remember it was only intended to operate for 8-10 years so it actually operated long beyond its planned life span... unlike the amazing US space station.... Skylab... Mir was pretty much the modular design basis of the current ISS... which is in many ways MIR 2. Russia certainly didn't have the money to keep it in orbit and the only reason it stayed in orbit as long as it did was because the US was very very keen to get experience in a real space station.... they had only had real experience of going up for up to a week at a time on their shuttles and then coming back down.

There was an interesting story from a US astronaut that went up with the first groups of US personel to Mir and he said he was told by the Russians taht after 3 months you lose a lot of muscle mass because without gravity you can push your self around the space station with your little finger... in fact humans designed for space would have four hands instead of two hands and two feet because feet are largely useless... grabbing and pushing off from things is easier with your hands... in fact for crew going to fly to mars that will stay in an orbiter vehicle should be people with no legs... it is just wasted mass and actually gets in the way more often than is useful by making you twice as long as you need to be.

Anyway this american said they were told that 3 months in space and they will be weak and will need assistance when they land back on the ground and he said quietly to himself then that he would follow the superior US training and exercise regime and eat the superior food and when he landed he was going to unstrap himself and stand up and show these Russians what a real astronaut can do. Well... he said he did more than the exercises suggested, and was very careful what food he ate and then when three months he landed back to earth and when he went to remove his strap he found he could not lift his own arm.

He said he felt ashamed... if the cold war had not ended and they had decided to go to Mars, US astronauts probably would have been too weak to do anything and probably would have died after almost two years in space to get there... in fact they likely would have broken bones on the landing just under the g force because muscles weaken but bones also are stripped of their calcium by the body because without gravity it thinks it does not need strong bones any more and uses it for other things...

This was all in a documentary I saw in the late 1990s but I suspect such an anti American and pro Russian doco would be buried these days in the current climate.... it had all sorts of interesting things, like the fact that the Soviet/Russian toilet on Mir was much better and easier to use than the one on the shuttle so when the shuttle was docked to Mir they used the space stations toilet. Also Soviet/Russian space suits were much better... much easier to put on. Essentially the backpack opened up like a door, which you put your feet and arms and head in from the rear, the backpack door was then closed and sealed and the seals were all checked on the joints... the parts are all rigid for operations in a vaccuum... it took about 40 minutes to put it on and do all the necessary checks... the American space suit took about 7 hours to put on and each section/joint was a separate piece that is assembled and the seals checked when on....

Such things will be lost in time because the new American toilets and space suits will be based on Soviet technology... just like their rocket engines.

American lack of awareness of muscle atrophy in space is because even their Moon missions lasted around one week.
Three months is not some magic cutoff. The atrophy starts from hour zero but it is rather slow.

Posts about Musk toys moved to Musk thread...

https://www.russiadefence.net/t3448p200-us-launch-vehicles-and-spacecraft-discussion-news#304755

https://www.militarynews.ru/story.asp?rid=0&nid=542996&lang=RU

"Moscow. December 10. INTERFAX-AVN - The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, called the statement of US Vice President Michael Pence about American leadership in space strange.

"Pence's very strange reaction to our successful launches of combat missile systems today," Rogozin said on Twitter on Wednesday night.
So he reacted to Pence's statement that the U.S. is leading in the "race" in space, despite challenges from Russia and China.
"According to Pence, space weapons have the right to create and test only the United States. What is it: arrogance or a blinding sense of national exclusivity? Or Pence's nervous reaction to our successful launches of combat missile systems today?" said Rogozin on Facebook.
"The Americans have a nervous cosmic breakdown today," the head of Roscosmos said.
Russia held a training session on strategic offensive forces management on Wednesday. During the training, the intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, a submarine ballistic missile from the Barents Sea, long-range air cruise missiles and Tu-160 and Tu-95MS strategic aircraft were carried out.
Pence said at a meeting of the National Space Council that U.S. President Donald Trump has signed a directive that prioritizes U.S. space interests.
"I am pleased to announce that the President has signed a new directive that provides guidance to the executive branch on any activity in space, emphasizing that space is a priority for the national security of our country," the US vice president said.

Americans are trash-talking trash.

He was responding to an idiot... something I agree he does do too often, but in this case I think everyone can agree Pence is a fool.

'Successful Explosive Crashes' aside, I never really understood the Starship concept. Is such relatively small single stage chemical rocket supposed to go on a trip to Mars, come back and land? Or is it a small scale demonstrator for now?

That was shifted to another thread, by all means continue to discuss, but with the videos in the relevant place:

https://www.russiadefence.net/t3448p200-us-launch-vehicles-and-spacecraft-discussion-news#304755

The Soviet nuclear rocket test was spectacular. It could sustain operation at 3100C exit temperature for Hydrogen for 4000 seconds.
By contrast the US test could sustain an exhaust temperature of no more than 2550C for 50 seconds. The US reactor was much heavier
and consumed way more Hydrogen. The USSR continued development on the nuclear rocket engine during the 1980s. The US
cancelled its program I believe around 1970.

In spite of the economic problems, Russian researchers continued to develop the design during the 2000s and the recent work
has given a viable engine that can be used in actual space missions. The Russian nuclear rocket is not any sort of "demonstrator"
or vapourware.

Guess there was a edit article mistake, because earlier they said Jupiter's moon but now just Jupiter which does not seem right because of the crushing atmospheric pressure that planet has along with heat and some big red spot in Jupiter they say is like a giant tornado with wind speeds of 270-425 mph.

thegopnik wrote:Guess there was a edit article mistake, because earlier they said Jupiter's moon but now just Jupiter which does not seem right because of the crushing atmospheric pressure that planet has along with heat and some big red spot in Jupiter they say is like a giant tornado with wind speeds of 270-425 mph.

The reference to Jupiter does not automatically mean any sort of entry into its atmosphere. It is normal to tag missions to its moons
by the name of the planet around which they orbit. And journalists like to save article space by reducing flowery explanatory language.
Cassini was called a mission to Saturn even though it was not some Saturn specific project.

I think they should focus on getting to Mars in a very short period of time to put yanqui blowhards in their place.